Maple Walnut Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

My neighbor makes this dressing all the time so I had to steal it from her :) Thanks Angela! This Maple Walnut Vinaigrette Dressing is adapted from The Yummy Life.

It took about 5 minutes to take all the ingredients out and put it through the food processor. This made about 9 oz of dressing which is almost a regular size bottle of dressing.

Enjoy!

Maple Walnut Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

approx 9 servings

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper or 1/4 tsp black pepper
1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
4 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all ingredients except the oils in a food processor. 

Blend until well combined and walnuts are pureed. 

With food processor running, pour olive in a slow steady stream through the feed tube. 

Transfer to jar or other airtight container and chill in fridge.

Note: If the dressing is thicker than you like, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until it's the desired consistency.

Broccoli Slaw

This is the broccoli slaw recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I loved this! It was refreshing and surprisingly light. 

I did use real buttermilk instead of my usual substitute (milk + white vinegar) because I wasn't sure of the flavor impact.

Next time I would add some dice chicken, or red cabbage or maybe sprinkle some crispy bacon pieces on top because...why not?! If I added more I would make more dressing too.

Broccoli Slaw

makes about 9 cups

2 heads of broccoli (florets and stems)
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds or walnuts
1/3 - 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)

Buttermilk Dressing:
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar

Salt & Pepper

Trim broccoli and cut into bite sized pieces using a knife, food processor, or mandolin slicer.

Toss the sliced broccoli with the almonds or walnuts, cranberries or raisins, and red onion in a large bowl (I used my largest cooking pot). 

In a small bowl, whisk all the dressing ingredients together. Pour the dressing over the broccoli and toss it well. Season with additional salt and pepper if you'd like.

Store in the fridge until ready to serve for up to a week.

No Bake Nutty Date Bars

I made these after trying a Larabar. These don't take like Larabars but are a sweet nutty snack. Also check out the No Bake Granola Bites!

No Bake Nutty Date Bars
8 oz  pitted dates
2 cups of mixed nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, peanuts, etc)

Put 1 3/4 cups of nuts in the food processor and pulse until crumbly and small. Pour into another bowl.
Put dates into the food processor and pulse until lumpy and chopped up. Add in a tbsp or 2 of water to thin the mix out.
Add chopped nuts back in and pulse until combined.
Once mix is done add in the remaining nuts and pulse to add some texture.

Scoop the mix into the muffin tins until you have your desired serving size. The muffin tins need to be lined with saran wrap or muffin papers because this is very sticky. Because I make these often I purchased the silicone muffin liners which also work as the "packaging."

This makes 6 - 9 muffin sized portions.

Mom's Best Banana Bread

I forgot to take a picture, luckily my
godmother sent me a picture of her banana
bread bites! This batch was made
with cashews.

Here is an original family recipe which as been passed down for generations! Well, at least one generation. This is mom's incredible banana bread recipe. The recipe below is even formatted and worded the same as how she sent it to me!

This is a hearty, moist, and dense quick bread which means there is no waiting for dough to rise or needing to proof yeast or do anything funky.  Just mix up ingredients, pour into pans, and bake it!

I also learned that banana bread ships easily if you need to mail it anywhere.

Note #1: What does "Prepared and floured" mean? Prepared and floured pans means spray your pans of choice with non-stick spray, then add a tsp or tbsp of flour into it. Tap the pan until the flour coats the edges, corners, and bottom of the pan. This helps the removal process and you really shouldn't skip this step. 

Note #2: How many cups is 4 bananas? Honestly, I have no idea. I made it with about 2 cups of mashed up bananas which was 3 really big bananas. Be sure to mash them really well otherwise the little banana lumps will burst and create a burned mess on the edges of your muffin pan or bottom of the oven.

Note #3: Double this recipe. Seriously, it is awesome and will be eaten far too quickly.

Possible changes that I have done in the past? Add chocolate chips and swap using walnuts or cashews.

Storing the bread is easy, leave it out on the counter over night to let it cool completely before sealing it up into an air tight container. You can leave it at room temperature. I'm not sure how it will stay fresh for because I've never had it any bread left after 3 days.

Enjoy!

Update 1/11/2015 - I subbed almond milk for regular milk. This didn't change the texture of the bread itself but it did change the crisp of the outside of the bread. Normally banana bread has that almost caramelized crunchy crust. The almond milk gave the bread a softer crust, similar to the inside of the bread. Bananas - I had frozen bananas that were going to start go bad. Peel them before freezing. To use them I let them defrost on the counter then when they were getting soft I pureed them in the food processor.For this try I used both walnuts and chocolate chips. I baked it in a 9x9 glass pan for 35 minutes. Yummy!

Banana Bread Recipe

By My Mother

yields: 3 mini loaves (40-45 minutes) OR 18 mini muffins (12 minutes) and 2 mini loaves OR a large loaf (45 minutes) OR 12 Jumbo muffins (22 minutes)

1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup white + 1/2 cup brown)
1 stick of butter, soft-room temp

2 eggs

¼ c. sour milk (1/4 c. milk + 1 tsp. vinegar) or buttermilk

2 c. flour*

¼ tsp. salt*

½ tsp. baking soda*

1 tsp. baking powder*

4 ripe bananas – well mashed, approx 2 cups

½ -1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
½ -1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F and prepared pans with oil and flour

Cream sugar and butter
Add eggs and blend well
Add sour milk

Add * ingredients on low in mixer
Add bananas and nuts

Pour batter into prepared pans 2/3 deep
Bake until when you test the cake with a toothpick it comes out clean

Cilantro Lime Pesto

Cilantro is going bad! What uses up lots of fresh herbs? Why pesto of course! This recipe is from The Washington Post and is a great starting point pesto ideas. The recipe below omits any cheese and the arugula, but I think they would both be great additions for next time I attempt this recipe.

How do you serve pesto? 
Pasta: One night we served it over this new quinoa pasta we wanted to try. The pasta was good and tasted like regular pasta, but when I read the ingredients label it didn't really seem much better than regular pasta. But I didn't look to far into it - it tasted yummy! Add about 1/2 cup for 1 lb of quinoa pasta. 
Rice: Another night we served it combined with left over white rice. Heat rice in a skillet over medium with a little olive oil (1 tbsp) and some water (2 tbsp). Once rice is softened and back to its sticky consistency, add the pesto and stir until pesto is mixed in and rice is hot. The rice was served with homemade tortillas and salsa poached chicken.

You may be wondering about the paprika, I included it but I didn't really taste it. Next time I would add more or omit it to see if I notice a difference.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Pesto

Cilantro Lime Rice

Cilantro PestoMakes about 1 cup

1/3 cup walnuts
2 cloves garlic, to taste
1 large bunch cilantro, roots and larger stems trimmed, washed and thoroughly dried
Squeeze of ½ lime
¼-1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
 ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

Place nuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add cilantro and lime, and pulverize. Add oil, going gradually; stop machine and taste for herb/oil ratio. Add more if it feels “dry.”

Scrape down sides of bowl as needed, and transfer pesto to a small mixing bowl. Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika, if using.

Brown Butter Raviolis with Walnuts and Snap Peas (plus Roasted Asparagus)

One of my friends came over for dinner so we made a variation of the brown butter raviolis with chicken and walnuts. We wanted something lighter, so we omitted the chicken and added in snap peas. We also made a side of roasted asparagus. I've never had roasted asparagus before...it is pretty darn tasty. You should make some too. Roasted veggies are a very easy way to prepare veggies too.

Brown Butter Raviolis with walnuts and snap peas (plus roasted asparagus)
Serves 2
8 jumbo frozen cheese ravioli
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
Snap peas (2-3 handfuls, peeled the ends to get rid of the strings that are along the bean)
1/3 cup fresh sage leaves, sliced into ribbons
Asparagus (peeled from the base of the spiky top to the bottom of the stalk)

Raviolis
Cook according the to package directions.

Toasting Walnuts
Place the walnuts in frying pan on medium heat and toast for ~5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove and chop.


The Rest of the Meal
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in the frying pan. Add onions and garlic, saute until soften. Add butter and let it melt. Add the snap peas and the sage. Add the cooked raviolis and walnuts then stir to combine.

Roasted Asparagus
Put on cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper if you would like. Roast at 425F for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Barefoot Contessa's Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies can be a great snack or an elegant dessert depending if you use cookie cutters or not. This recipe is very straight forward and with a little tweaking you can make this recipe your own! The original recipe is Barefoot Contessa and can be found here.

The only change I make with the recipe is I use whatever nuts I have on hand (hazelnut, pecans, walnuts, etc) and I use 2 tsp of vanilla extract instead of 1 since I omit the almond extract. The pecan version tastes like pecan sandies!

In my mixer I combine the butter and sugar, then vanilla extracts. In a separate bowl I mix the flour and the salt.

Then I add the flour mix into the mixer. Add the nuts and mix until it starts to come together. I find it is a little crumbly at this stage, like coarse sand size pieces.

If I am going to roll out shapes I shape the dough into flat disk in the plastic wrap. If I want to slice them I will shape it into logs into the plastic wrap. I let the dough chill about 30 minutes. After I slice or roll the dough out to make shapes.

Sometimes it is still a little crumbly but squeeze the plastic wrap it will pack together better.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn light brown. Let them cool, they are one of the few cookies that don't taste as good when they are warm.

This recipe makes a few dozen but largely it depends on how small or large the cookies. 

Shortbread Cookies

    3/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature

    1 cup sugar

    2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

    3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 cups small diced pecans (or whatever nuts you have)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In mixer combine butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla extract. In another bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter/sugar mixture. Add the nuts and mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and use a cookie cutter to shape. Or slice the log into 1/2 inch slices. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature and serve.

Enjoy!

Candied Pecans

N. bought me a silpat mat!! What is a silpat mat, you ask? Basically its a reusable nonstick baking mat that can be used instead of parchment paper. Isn't he the best? I had to try it out and make him something. Since it was late and I was tired, I wanted to go with an easy recipe that didn't require needing to chill dough (shortbread was the other choice).

Seriously, this recipe is pretty much fool proof. It will be tasty no matter what. I wanted to half the recipe, but only successfully halved some of the ingredients... still came out good though!

I made this for the holidays last year, your house will smell amazing! If you wanted to half this recipe, it is easy. If you wanted to double the recipe, it is easy.

The original recipe calls for pecans, which are so good! However, I didn't have enough, so I used 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of pecans.

Whip an egg white and tbs of water until its frothy. Didn't half it, just used the whole thing.

Add nuts and coat in the egg white.

Add cinnamon (not halved), sugar (halved), and salt (halved).

Stir it all up. Because I didn't use all the nuts my mixture had some liquid in bottom of the bowl.

Put on a grease/parchment paper/silpat covered cookie sheet and bake at 250 for an hour. Stir them on the cookie sheet every 15 minutes.

(Note the pretty new mat!)

I'm impatient and I was tired, I took them out after 45 minutes.

I let them cool for a little bit and then put them into containers to store at room temperature.

These are tasty as a snack but also would be good on a salad!

Candied Pecans
Makes 1 lb

1 egg white
1 tbs water
1 lb pecans
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250F. Prepare 1 baking sheet.
2. Whip 1 egg white and water until frothy. In separate bowl combine sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Add nuts to egg white. Add dry ingredients. Stir until well coated.
4. Spread out on baking sheet
5. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Brown Butter Ravioli, Chicken, Walnuts, & Sage

Mind = Blown.

I found this recipe on Pinterest quite a few weeks ago. Every time I go to the grocery store I think, maybe this is the time! But I find something else to make that week.

However. This week was The Week. Brown Butter Ravioli with Rotisserie Chicken, Toasted Walnuts, and Sage. Very easy to make. You can find the original recipe here.

I have never knowingly used sage before (its in poultry seasoning which is another awesome spice for use in chicken soup!). Nor have I ever made my own rotisserie chicken before. And apparently I have been missing out.

Sage is a soft/fuzzy green leafy herb that is (as herbs are) very fragrant. It has been around for ages and ages and is known for its many health benefits and being able to treat many different ailments. Sage is one of the main ingredients in poultry seasoning too.

Spices

Spice rubbed chicken - raw

I started with defrosting the chicken in a bowl of water bath in my sink. Meanwhile, I mixed the spices together. I didn't have thyme so I omitted it. I also didn't know what a pound of chicken would be and since I was going through all this work, I decided to go with 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (approx 3-4 servings for me). After about 20 minutes I declared them defrosted enough and covered them in the spices. Next time I'll use the full amount, (I had halved it), but it was still very flavorful.

Seared chicken

Next I seared them in a skillet until browned, only a few minutes on each side. If I had a dutch oven (Please mom?) I could have popped it right into the oven. Instead I transferred it to a pie plate and used a glass oven safe cover. I baked it for about 25 minutes at 350F. When I took it out I could see that the center was still raw. I cut it up into bite size pieces and put it back in for another 5 minutes. I'm fairly certain this has to do with me using chicken that isn't entirely thawed out... Regardless, it came out awesome and is incredibly easy.

While the chicken was cooking away, I started toasting the walnuts on medium heat. Easy enough, put some in a frying pan and stir them around a little bit until they become little aromatic morsels. This takes about 5 minutes. Note, I didn't wipe out the pan after I seared the chicken. I took the walnuts out of the pan and chopped them up into smaller pieces.

I started to boil some water in a pot for the raviolis. I used store bought store brand fresh Mini Spinach and Cheese Raviolis. I cooked them according to the directions on the packaging. Any flavor would be good, I was figuring spinach makes it healthier? Aside from the fact that spinach raviolis are delish. Tortellinis would have been tasty too (aka raviolis in a different shape). Basically any type of filled pasta could be substituted in.

As the raviolis were cooking...I melted 2 tbsp of butter in the same frying pan the walnuts had been in. The original recipe uses 4 tbsp of butter, but I'm not a huge butter fan (yes, crazy, I know). This would be good if you want more of a coating on the raviolis, but for me? This was the perfect amount. Since I didn't wait for the pan to cool I moved it to a cold burner to keep the butter from burning. Once the butter was melted I tossed the sage in and stirred it around for about a minute. Then added the walnut pieces and diced chicken.

Because I was cooking for more than one meal I didn't add the raviolis into the pan with the rest of the ingredients. I dislike re-heated pasta so I only cooked what I was going to eat for that meal. If you are going to eat this right away, add the ravioli into the pan.

This made enough for 3 large very filling no appetizer no dessert dinners.

Changes for next time? Maybe cut the chicken and bake it in the oven so it would cook faster. Use more spices in the chicken (the recipe below uses the original measurements, so don't double them...) and more sage. I used less then 1/3 cup which the recipe recommended. I used probably a 1/4 cup or a little less.

If you want to make this meal even faster use store bought rotisserie chicken. But if I had cut the chicken before cooking it, it could have been done in under 20 minutes.

Update: Prepared chicken as instructed but cooked the chicken on the stove. Tasted just as good, cooks a lot faster, whole meal was done in under 30 minutes.

Brown Butter Raviolis, Rotisserie Chicken, Toasted Walnuts, and Sage
Serves approx 2-3

2 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tsp salt and pepper (to taste)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp olive oil
9 oz fresh mini ravioli
(1/2 cup) walnuts
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup fresh sage leaves

Chicken
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine spices and rub onto both sides of the chicken. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a frying pan (or dutch oven). Add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes until brown then do the same for the other side. Put chicken in oven safe pan and cover (or cover dutch oven). and cook for 25-30 minutes. Let cool a few minutes then dice into bite size pieces.

Raviolis
Cook according the to package directions.

Walnuts
Place the walnuts in frying pan on medium heat and toast for ~5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove and chop.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the same skillet over medium heat. When the butter just starts to turn brown, add the sage and stir constantly for one minute.

Combine ravioli, chicken, and walnuts.

And try to get all of it in one bite in your mouth. Its worth it.

Enjoy!!

Three Pea Chicken Salad

I found this spring time Three Pea Chicken Salad recipe in Bon Appetit magazine, April 2012, also found here. This chicken salad caught my eye because I adore sugar snap peas (I eat them out of the bag). I have seen many recipes using yogurt/Greek yogurt as a substitute for mayo and I was really interested in tasting/texture changes. And finally, I've never poached chicken and this was going to either be great or an epic disaster.

Thankfully this came out great! I think it tasted even better the next day. Of course, I made some changes in the recipe due to my budget and ingredient availability. 

Dried tarragon for fresh, Lemon flavor Greek yogurt instead of plain and that also takes care of the lemon juice/zest part of the recipe as well. I used one shallot. Chives were forgotten at the grocery store. I omitted snow peas since I couldn't find them.

And so begins our adventure, poaching chicken. (The recipe said you can substitute rotisserie chicken but I had some frozen chicken breast already instead of buying one). I put half the shallot, garlic, and tarragon in the frying pan. Added chicken (cut in half or quarters so it would fit in the pan). Covered in water. Covered pan. Set to boil. Once it started to boil I took it off the burner and let it sit for another 25 minutes. I think it took longer for mine because my chicken was still frozen in the middle... oops. Very easy. Once the chicken is done cooking take it out of the pan and cut it into whatever size pieces you like. Small dice, shredded, chunky dice... its your call. I think I would shred it into bite size chunks next time. Let the chicken cool before mixing it into the dressing.

Meanwhile, I sliced the de-stringed sugar snap peas. My knife skills aren't very delicate so I cut them on a diagonal into pretty bright green bites. I poured the frozen peas into a bowl and combined them with the snap peas.

Dressing: chop the shallot and the garlic very fine or you'll end up with some harsh bites in the salad. With a whisk or fork combine oil and yogurt. Next mix in the rest of the shallot, rest of the garlic garlic, some salt & pepper, the rest of the tarragon, and some parsley. Stir it together until its all mixed in. 

Then I added the peas and cooled chicken to the dressing. Put into my lunch containers and added some chopped walnuts to the top.

I ate it out of the bowl with a piece of bread on the side to nosh on.

My thoughts? Yum! Fresh! Light! Pretty healthy too. I let a couple friends at work try a bite and they asked for the recipe and said it was very tasty. This would be great for a nice luncheon and be pretty easy to make in a large batch. The most time consuming part was cutting the peas, but if you want to take short cuts get the de-stringed ones and that should help reduce the time by quite a bit.

The recipe says it makes 4 servings, I had 3 big servings because that was going to be my full lunch without any sides.

Spring Chicken Salad

Time: 30 Min

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients

2 tsp dried tarragon

1 lg shallot, minced

2 garlic cloves, 1 smashed, 1 minced

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast (2 chicken breast)

salt & pepper

6 oz container lemon Greek yogurt

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lb sugar snap peas

1 c frozen peas

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Place 1/2 tarragon, 1/2 shallot, smashed garlic, and chicken into frying pan. Add water to cover by 1 inch or as much as you can. Season with salt and pepper. Bring water to a boil. Remove pan from heat, keep covered. Let stand until chicken is cooked. 15-25 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool. Shred or dice chicken.

Whisk yogurt, oil, remaining shallot, garlic, and tarragon, and parsley in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Combine with peas and chicken.

Option: Serve open face sandwiches over toasted bread and/or lettuce.

Enjoy!!!